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30 novembre Headlight hypocrisy illuminated Dan Trent writes: Have you noticed how many cars there are going round with faulty headlights, usually one blazing away on full beam and the other barely more than single orange filament? It's one of my seasonal pet hates! Obviously the dark evenings make the problem more obvious but I’m sure it’s more prevalent than ever. Either that or I’m just getting less and less tolerant in my old age. Anyway, around town it’s just irritating. But I once nearly had a head-on shunt with someone on a single track lane because only their nearside light was working. I thought I was approaching a motorbike and had plenty of room until, at the last second, I realised it was a car and had to dive for the hedge. Anyway, here I am, all superior, safe in the knowledge all my headlights are working properly. I’ve even – to much mockery – picked up a habit of switching all the lights on – fogs, hazards, the lot - and walking round the car to make sure of this, a habit I picked up from my shifts with the traffic cops who do this as a matter of course before heading out on patrol. Imagine then my horror on Saturday night to see, reflected in the back of a car ahead, just one working headlight on the Clio. The shame! I pulled into a petrol station for both a bit of shelter and light to fiddle around in, confident I had some spare bulbs aboard. Only I didn’t. The petrol station was one of those where you can do your weekly shop and, like some old curmudgeon, I muttered ‘be nice if garages these days actually sold spares for cars rather than fancy coffees and frozen pizzas’. Whaddya know though, they did sell spare bulbs. Better than that, Clio-shaped bulbs! Faith – and illumination – restored I continued on my way, safe again my moral high ground and able to point and tut at those dimly lit reprobates with their faulty lights. Honestly, what kind of irresponsible fool would do such a thing… Dan --- Links: On the road with the traffic cops, part one On the road with the traffic cops, part two Clios in a spin at Oulton --- Share It
New VW Polo no baggagecj hubbard writes: All hail the mighty new Volkswagen Polo. This is one tough little supermini. It makes the Fiesta look like a plastic toy. It comes at a cost, of course. But have you seen a Ford price list recently? Ouch.
And what’s more, despite initial appearances, the Polo isn’t boring, either. Yes, you will probably mistake it for a Golf at first glance, but get over that and you’ll realise the Polo is both mean and debonair. The interior may be overwhelmingly black, but my God are all the control interfaces in the right place, and boy will you come to understand the clichéd application of ‘bank vault’ build quality, unprecedented in the supermini class. Just to rub things in further, it’s even good to drive. Less flighty and spontaneous than the Ford, but a really good, faithful steer. Our 1.4 petrol DSG test car is hardly a dynamo – the word sloooooow comes to mind – but it sounds sporty and the gearbox offers an almost entirely fuss free driving experience. Nit-picking, I often found myself wishing it would downshift earlier, but that is without resorting to Sport mode, and most people wouldn’t notice. I have, however, found a fault with it. I know, I know – the scandal...
It’s one of those inconsequential things that will in fact drive you quietly insane over a period of exposure. The parcel shelf doesn’t work properly. Obviously it doesn’t help that my bag is a touch too tall for the space I’m asking it to fit in. But because the parcelshelf is made of relatively flimsy material – the boy blasters stand little chance of mounting a pair of hefty 6x9s here – it ends up getting stuck in the upright position. So you climb into the front, only to discover you can no longer see anything out of the rear view mirror.
Other cars I can immediately think of that do the same thing are the Hyundai i10 and Suzuki Alto. Hmmm. Somehow, jamming the Polo’s parcelshelf in the upright position also serves to disengage the bits of string that move it out of the way whenever you open the boot. This is the part that will finally push you over the edge.
Anyways, the new Polo isn’t perfect. But it’s pretty close. --- Links: First Drive: Volkswagen Polo (2009 onwards model) Volkswagen Polo TSI, mythical creature Greek Spark-lers from Chevrolet --- Technorati Tags: Volkswagen, VW, Polo, 1.4 DSG, parcelshelf, madness, Ford, Fiesta, In the car park, On the Road, MSN Cars, Inside Track --- Share It:
27 novembre Super shock from supercarRichard Aucock writes: MSN Cars had a team gathering last night, where we get together with the great and the good elsewhere within the organisation for a catch-up and a drink. Fine night was had by all. CJ and I had a train to catch though, so we hot-footed it to the Tube. And, lo, what's that suddenly to our left?
Yes - only the first example of Lexus' mighty, mega-money LF-A supercar in the country! Our double take meant we risked missing our train, but it's not every day you just so happen to see stuff like this. We gawped, we took pictures, then remembered: Dan here is off for a close-up of it today! So, for a fuller view on how it got here, and where it's heading after (plus some far better images), come back soon. Us two? We had to dash: just made the train, though... --- Share It
Greek Spark-lers from ChevroletAlex Goy writes: Greetings from the Chevrolet Spark launch in Greece!
I’ll be honest, given the choice between being here, where it’s 20 degrees and sunny, and being at home in London (where I hear it’s not too nice), I know which I’d choose.
On the plus side, the clement weather means I’ve had the chance to look round the Spark’s darker corners. I’m pleased to report that it’s rather fetching.
A few friends in the ‘biz’ predicted it’d not be great, but I can happily say they’re very wrong. On all counts. It really is quite a charming wee car, something that I’d happily have on my drive. The design was apparently picked via a public vote from a choice of three and – having seen the others - I’m glad that this one made the cut.
There’s also the added bonus that it was featured in Transformers. I’m driving an Autobot! And I love it. Come back next week for the MSN Cars First Drive review of the Chevrolet Spark. --- Share It
26 novembre Oh lordy – I have been given the boss’s S600…Tom Evans writes: To the wilds of Hampshire to visit the organic farm of Jody Scheckter, Laverstoke. Jody is a former racing driver who won the Formula One world championship in 1979 with Ferrari. Previously he drove with Tyrrell and McLaren. Here he is at the wheel of the famous six-wheeled P34, which he drove to victory at the Swedish Grand Prix in 1976.
After his retirement in 1980, he enjoyed a successful business career in America, before selling his company and moving to the UK with his English wife and young family. Having been a big Mercedes owner for many years, he is now a ‘brand ambassador,’ and the purpose of the day is to promote the face-lifted top-of-the-range Mercedes S-Class. To get there, Merc have lent me, gulp, a S600L – the £110,000 V12 biggest daddy of the range this side of the totally mad £150,000 S65 AMG variant. But more importantly, judging by the key, this is not part of their press fleet, but in fact belongs to a real person: the MD of M-B UK:
Double-gulp. I gat paranoid enough with these big expensive cars at the best of times. But with the car actually being owned and used by a real person – and an ‘important’ one – makes me even more anxious. As I imagine it: Minion: “I’m very sir, but your car is late back from the workshop.” MD: “Why’s that?” Minion: “that total plonker Evans from MSN only managed to ding its alloys and scuff its bumpers in the 12 hours it was in his ownership, causing £800 worth of damage.” MD: “Right - he is totally banned from using any of our cars for the next 10 years.” Etc. But we did need to test it, so the night before my journey to Hampshire I bundled the family in and went to TGI Fridays in a retail park off the A1M in Mill Hill. It’s not really our type of place, but it is child-friendly and most importantly has a good sized car park where we can hopefully keep the car well away from any trouble. My 4-year-old thinks that the rear TV screens are the coolest things ever, as she settles down to watch the Jungle Book – again. Our 1.5 year-old just stares mesmerised. Rear TV screens are fun – but I would never have them in my own car; my kids would never look out of the windows, and I remember when I was growing up I learned a lot about the world from staring at it as we went by:
This uber-luxobarge really looks the business:
And the night-vision thingy is really quite cool – though I suspect most useful in heavy darkness and thick fog, rather than in the wilds of street-lit Finchley…
The TGI Fridays mission passes without incident, and en-route to Hampshire just time for a quick school run:
It is a big old car, the S600, and a very complicated one. I enjoyed all the toys, especially the massaging seats, the very high quality sat-nav, the ability to watch Sky News on the grid-locked M25, and radar cruise control. Full road test to follow. And so to the farm itself, where we are greeted by Andrew Roberts and Rob Halloway from Mercedes, and Wilfried Steffen, the MD who owns ‘my’ S600. There are around ten or so journos there, some of whom I vaguely know and some I don’t. I’m very pleased to meet Gavin Green, the Australian who edited Car magazine in a period when I read it in the early ‘90s and it had amazing writers like LJK Setright and Russell Bulgin, both sadly no longer with us. We are welcomed by Jody himself and his wife Clare. An affable South-African, he tells us about setting up the farm back in 1996 and the progress that he has made since. It is clear that it is not an easy job by any means and the organic nature of everything means that everything is a lot more expensive and labour-intensive than more factory-orientated efforts:
One of the reasons he worked is “so that he could afford the best car I could get” and has been a Mercedes owner for many years. Since the deal with Mercedes earlier this year, he has acquired some more and his house “sometimes resembles a dealership.” The Farm And thence for a tour of the farm. Spread around a vast 1500-acre site, the farm produces a vast array of meat and agricultural produce. First stop is the Buffalo mozzarella dairy, where they make the cheese that is famously Italian but has to be eaten quickly before it goes off. Jody sells it to the likes of Waitrose and various posh restaurants. I eat some fresh off the line – delicious. Not so delicious is our next stop: the abattoir. Where meat-eating is involved, these places are unavoidable. I have never been to one before as far as I can remember, and while I’m sure Laverstoke’s is a whole lot better than most, an abattoir is still an abattoir. One or two of our party stay outside. Laverstoke has been lent an electric Smart, and here Merc’s Wilfried is asking its driver how he’s getting on with it:
Up to the soil lab; Laverstoke is apparently one of the few farms to take the biology of its soil so seriously that it employs boffins to keep everything in line. On a ‘normal’ farm this is a job done by fertilisers and pesticides:
Clare shows us their free-range chickens. And they really are free-range, with a vast field to wander about in:
“What about the foxes?” “We shoot them.” We then go and choose some eggs by delving our hands directly into the hen-house; Andrew Frankel manages to find one the size of a hand grenade. Back into the Sprinter minibus, and off to see the Buffalo:
Feeding the buffalo calves, with Mercedes’ Rob Halloway:
And thence to lunch in Jody and Clare’s lovely 18th-century house. Many of the journos present are much more knowledgeable about F1 in general and Jody in particular than I am so I leave it to them to fire questions at him about his career. I ask him who is favourite F1 driver of today is. “Oh Lewis, most definitely… so fast and fluid, especially in traffic.” And was James Hunt as wild as everyone… “Yes,” Jody interrupts me with a laugh. “I remember getting one flight with him down to Spain or somewhere – we got so drunk we were virtually unable to get off the plane…” Left to right: Clare Scheckter, Jody Scheckter, Gavin Green, Ben Barry (Car magazine):
The lunch is sumptuous and involves us tasting all the amazing meat that Laverstoke produces: lamb, chicken, various types of sausage – as well as some lovely wine. We are then tasked with tasting Jody’s latest Buffalo-milk ice cream, and asked to give our verdict on various new flavours – all of which are marvellous, especially a unique flavour beginning with R which tastes like no other ice cream I’ve ever had… After lunch, Jody takes us through his car collection, which includes most of the F1 cars he drove during his career, including the 12-cylinder Ferrari that he won the championship with in 1979: And thence off home to London – this time in the back of the S600. My driver is a charming off-duty policeman and as myself and my channel are obsessed with police vehicles, I enjoy grilling him as to his favourites – before I inevitably doze off in those long-wheelbase leather chairs… Spot the handbrake competition... Dan Trent writes: As CJ has already alluded, I’ve been having something of a difference of opinion with the electronic parking brake fitted to the new Astra we’ve just had in. Now, to be fair to Vauxhall it’s an issue I have with electronic handbrakes in general. It’s just the Astra’s bad luck it was the last car I drove with one. And boy have I got a bee in my bonnet! I know there are packaging advantages compared with conventional handbrakes and all that. But, really, we coped this far. And when I yank a handbrake I know it’s on. I can feel the mechanical connection, the resistance of the brake shoes stopping the car’s motion and it’s the kind of confidence inspiring thing you want when you’re stopping a car for a hill start or whatever. I can also find a handbrake without having to look – eyes stay on the road, hand goes between seat, there it is. I’m not flailing around the dashboard for a little switch and then lowering the back window when I meant to be stopping the car rolling backwards. I also know the brake is on because I can feel it. And, like many electronic systems, the Astra’s had an annoying delay between flicking the switch (once I’d found it) and actually engaging. Is it on or isn’t it? Well, for reasons best known to the black boxes about one time in three it wasn’t, the car rolling back and resulting in another mad flailing session to press it again and hope it engaged this time around. And when it comes to something as fundamental as making sure a car doesn’t roll away I just have a fundamental mistrust of a little switch. I want a big lever to pull. I want to feel like I’m yanking the back wheels up under me. I want to be in no doubt whatsoever that when I take my foot off the brake the car isn’t going anywhere. Worse than that, how on earth am I meant to practise my new, stunt school honed ability to handbrake turn into parking spaces? Dan --- Links: How to drive like a stuntman Don’t give up the day job Hell in the aisles Raging against the machine --- Bentley bus brings great charity cheercj hubbard writes:
Ok, I may have been a little hasty in declaring the Hyundai Morris Minor story cutest press release of the week on Tuesday. If this doesn’t stir some warmth within you, well, best change your name to Scrooge and think about cancelling Christmas.
The above Routemaster double decker bus belongs to St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice. The charity acquired it earlier in the year to act as a mobile fundraiser. Apparently it needed a bit of work, so for the past several months it’s been in the hands of Bentley Motors at Crewe. Yes, that Bentley Motors. It handed back the keys at 11am this morning. Fair to say, a few jaws at St Luke’s must have dropped.
59 Bentley workers have put in a total of 2,000 hours completely renovating the Routemaster, keeping as many original features as possible while adapting it to St Luke’s needs in quite remarkable Bentley style. The leather you see throughout is the same leather used in Bentley road cars, lovingly hand stitched with the logos of St Luke’s and Bentley. The ticket bin has been repurposed for donation collection. Completely custom-designed work surfaces are amongst changes to the remodelled interior, all specifically tailored to St Luke’s requirements.
Bentley Production Manager for the project, Gary Lazenby: “This has been a real labour of love for all those involved. Bentley staff are incredibly proud of the cars we produce but applying those skills to a bus was a totally new experience for all. We are very grateful to the many suppliers who provided materials free of charge to help make this iconic vehicle fit for a new lease of life.”
The Bentley Bus is called Luke, and will be touring the local area serving as a mobile charity shop, and education and awareness base for the charity.
Bentley has been associated with St Luke’s Cheshire Hospice for the last three years. During the recession-imposed factory shutdown in March and April this year, many Bentley employees chose to volunteer at the charity rather than simply rest idle. A make-over for one of St Luke’s fundraising shops, a rejuvenated hospice garden and now this bus are amongst the fruits of their labour.
Karen Burns, St Luke’s corporate fundraiser: “Bentley’s support has been invaluable to us over the past three years and we are astounded by our new community bus. As a charity we could only dream about Luke undergoing such a transformation. What we have is not only unique but is also a practical tool for us to share the St Luke’s story.” You can read more about St Luke’s – and even make your own donation – via the links. --- Links: --- Technorati Tags: Bus, St Luke's Cheshire Hospice, Bentley, Routemaster, charity, Offbeat News, MSN Cars, Inside Track --- Share It:
25 novembre Hell in the aisle - UPDATED: actually, it's joycj hubbard writes: UPDATED: I'm eating my words here, as well as my lunch. Sainsbury's hasn't put in four self-checkout stations. It's put in 10. A triumph for technology over random grumbling. Or something... Post below reads as before.
Well, I think we can forget about popping out for lunch goods at our local Sainsbury’s ever again. They – it’s got to be a ‘they’ – have just replaced the six dedicated basket checkouts with four of those new self-checkout stations. So that’s two fewer of a system that invariably doesn’t work properly unless you use it exactly as its microprocessors dictate. Something that the person in the queue ahead of you probably won’t be able to do, making the system not just slower but doubly so. It’s chaos in there at the moment. What exactly was wrong with the old analogue – which is to say ‘human’ – checkout interface? I’ve been trying to think of an automotive equivalent. The closest I’ve got so far is Dan’s complete and utter loathing of electronic handbrakes, but at least these have a packaging advantage – and I suppose Sainsbury’s and A.N. Other supermarkets would say freeing the staff from the tills helps keep the shelves stocked; who cares if it comes at the expense of longer queues and more dissatisfied customers. Really, however, I suspect I just wanted to rant. --- Links: On track testing with the CG-Lock --- Technorati Tags: Sainsbury's, checkout, self-checkout, basket, customer satisfaction, Gadgets and Gizmos, Offbeat News, MSN Cars, Inside Track --- Share It:
24 novembre BMW 5 Series seen... eventuallyRichard Aucock writes: Yesterday, MSN Cars went over to Munich, to see the brand-new BMW 5 Series. And frustratingly, all the time we were there, we couldn't report a single word back! BMW imposed a strict embargo, so information couldn't be released until 7pm. This wasn't the end of their teasing, either. It started off by us being picked up in new 5 Series. Err, new 5 Series GTs. So near! Then, entering BMW's truly massive design centre (7,000 people work there alone), we saw a sign, welcoming us to see the new car. Great - eyes peeled, then... Sure enough, there it was. Well, sort of. This bowling ball theme continued upstairs, as we waited for the press conference to begin. There, laid out, were all the colours to be offered on the new 5 Series. But not a single image depicting what the finished job would look like. People were, by this stage, up and pacing. A slight diversion was the revelation that, between where we were and where BMW's official HQ is (the second-tallest tower on the horizon below), '1 in 2 businesses are connected to BMW'. This means 40,000 people in this North Munich region alone are reliant on BMW's fortunes. Hence the wait: it had to be right. Finally, it was into the huge viewing hall. An hour's insight into the design process, then the drama really began. Fanfare, light show, and there she was. The new BMW 5 Series.
For the next 2 hours, all we did was speak 5 with the engineers. They're clearly very proud of it. Rightly so, we reckon. Yep, it was worth the wait... --- Share It
Rescue a Moggie for charidycj hubbard writes:
And the prize for the cutest press release of the week goes to... Yes, I know it’s only Tuesday. Hyundai, as I think we all know by now, is doing brilliantly well out of the Scrappage Scheme. This has already seen the sacrifice of one Morris Minor (actually I think it was donated to a museum rather than destroyed, but it can no longer be used on the road); now another Moggie has been threatened by the scrappy’s crusher.
However, this time the owner of Chelmsford Hyundai, Bill Cook, has stepped in. Rather than see the Minor scrapped he covered the previous owner’s £2,100 scrappage allowance out of his own pocket, buying the car instead of condemning it. Now this 1967 1,098cc Morris Minor Traveller is being auctioned off, with the proceeds going to Children in Need. It’s on eBay right now, where you can even read an appraisal from The Morris Minor Owners Club - which has also been kind enough to donate a year’s membership to the lucky winning bidder. See, I told you it was cute. Well done, Hyundai. --- Links: Morris Minor Traveller auctioned for Children in Need --- Technorati Tags: Hyundai, Morris Minor, Traveller, Moggie, Children in Need, scrappage scheme, eBay, Offbeat News, Inside Track --- Share It:
Oi! Geezer! No!cj hubbard writes:
If the audience stats Dan dug up the other day are anything to go by, the three of us in this office are amongst a very select minority who appreciate BBC 6Music during the day. This, therefore, is a bit of an 'insiders' titbit. But if you happened to be listening to George Lamb interview the notorious Danny Dyer a couple of weeks ago, you will know that the gangster movie geezer had a Porsche Cayenne nicked off his driveway the night before. What a calamity. Well, fret no longer, good people. A press release from Tracker reveals that the company has found and recovered it. What’s more, thanks to the Tracker electronic tracking device fitted to the Cayenne, it was actually recovered in just an hour and a half. Whatever you think of Dyer, or indeed the Porsche Cayenne (or, for that matter, George Lamb), you have to admit, that is pretty impressive. Carry on. --- Links: On-track testing with the CG-Lock New Porsche racer walks ‘most ridiculous spoiler’ contest ---
Technorati Tags: Tracker, Danny Dyer, George Lamb, Porsche Cayenne, BBC 6Music, Gadgets and Gizmos, Offbeat News, Inside Track --- Share It:
On track testing with the CG-Lockcj hubbard writes: A little earlier, but essentially this time last week, Dan and I were rocking up to Oulton Park circuit for a Renaultsport trackday, bringing with us a pair of CG-Locks to test.
This didn’t get off to an immediately great start, since it turned out Dan’s was faulty. This may or may not have had anything to do with letting one C. Knapman from Performance Car touch the device as soon as it came out of its box. We’re guessing not – even if the company claims it’s only had about 10 faulty CG-Locks in four years. The problem? Too much sideways movement in the main shaft, allowing the spring that keeps everything tight to slip its moorings.
So, what with Dan being the hardcore track driver, no way to validate the ‘1 second a lap’ performance gain claims – though since we were at a public trackday official timing wasn’t really on the agenda. Doesn’t go down well with the circuit’s insurance company… However, I can give you my impressions. And the first thing to say is that the CG-Lock doesn’t work quite like I thought it did.
It bolts on to the back of the seatbelt buckle – expect teeth marks in your plastic, but that’s a small price to pay – then clamps over the top of the seat belt as it heads across your body back to where it meets the B-pillar. The lever on the side releases the tension, allowing you to pull the belt tight. Release the lever again, and the Lock, well, locks, keeping the belt taut.
Or at least, it keeps the lap portion of the belt taut. This certainly has its benefits, but the CG-Lock doesn’t do anything to stop your shoulders moving against the inertia reel. In the Renaultsport Twingo Cup this meant it was easy to slouch, perhaps countering the company’s claims about its posture benefits. I’m continuing to test this aspect of the device, however, and what I can say is that having the lap belt pulling your hips tight against the back rest most definitely does serve as a constant reminder to sit up straight. On top of which, the CG-Lock is sold and approved by numerous back specialists, and the company has many testimonials from satisfied customers who say it has helped to relieve their back pain. On the track, the idea is that the CG-Lock keeps you snug in the seat so you can concentrate on driving properly – which is to say as hard as possible. And in this regard it worked brilliantly.
Admittedly, the Twingo Cup has got pretty decent figure hugging chairs, even as standard (Dan’s mate Danny, owner of a Clio 182 affectionately known as the Baked Bean – would you guess it’s orange? - commented on this almost instantly during a passenger ride). But with the CG-Lock hauled on as tight as I could stand it, I cannot consciously remember any instance during the day where I found myself forced to hang onto the steering wheel, or brace my knee against the door trim to stop myself sliding in the seat. I can’t think of any normal car on the market that has seats capable of achieving the same results alone during serious track driving. Well worth the £40.
As for on the road, the CG-Lock is so easy to use it quickly becomes second nature to slip the lever and tug the belt tight as you plug the buckle into its socket. The added security it provides to your location in the car seat has got to be good for safety, right? And after several days doing exactly this in the Twingo, then moving onto a new Volkswagen Polo without fitting the Lock (it’s going into my Mazda), it actually feels kind of odd to be without it. The testing continues, but for the money it’s hard to see at this point how you could go wrong. --- Links: --- Technorati Tags: CG-Lock, trackday, safety, seat belt, Renaultsport, Twingo, Cup, On the Road, Gadgets and Gizmos, Inside Track --- Share It:
23 novembre Not exactly cabrio weather
Dan Trent writes:
Anyway, just as well a branded brolly is included in the standard equipment. We’re nothing if not thorough in our roadtests here at MSN Cars and though the full story will be online soon I can safely say the umbrella is useless above, well, walking pace.
Meanwhile at Aston’s HQ at Gaydon there’s this eye-catching sight outside reception. Yes, that’s a V8 Vantage apparently walking on water. A hitherto unknown Aston Martin quality and one perhaps suited to the conditions at the moment.
I also committed something of a faux pas by parking the Astra I rocked up in beside the DBS to transfer my kit, only to spot the following sign. Oops. The Astra’s a good car and all. But perhaps not quite good enough to be parked right outside Aston Martin’s offices. Dan ---Links: Don't give up the day job Aston Martins 'like buses' On the road: of Astons and Accords My ears are still ringing A modern tale of urban terror [or, Part One] --- Share It:
Mazda MX-5: clean at last?cj hubbard writes: Oh, thank God. You know what it didn’t do in Hemel Hempstead last Sunday? It didn’t rain. (Unlike yesterday, which was awful.) This meant I finally had the chance to clean my new car properly for the first time since I bought it nearly two months ago. With its swirled, scratched and battered paint, the MX-5 doesn’t look to have ever been polished or waxed on a regular basis, or with any kind of care, so I’m not just talking about a soap and rinse here.
It also meant the first opportunity to try out some new cleaning products, made in the UK by a company called Bilt-Hamber. I stumbled across Bilt-Hamber - or BH, as the bufftees seem to call it - on a forum somewhere, got intrigued, noodled around online for a bit more, and found myself converted. I paid my own actual money for these, incidentally - ordering through Rubbish Boy’s Carnauba Wax Shop (well worth a mention given the quick inquiry response and advice I got from Ben there, the speedy delivery and thoughtful packaging). Bilt-Hamber also make a bunch of heavy duty rust-proofing, degreasing and lubrication products. I have subsequently purchased a number of these from Bilt-Hamber direct, sold as a total winter care package - although the way the weather is going at the moment it will be next winter before I get the chance to try them.
Anyways, my BH cleaning kit consists of Auto-wash, Auto-clay and Auto-balm. The Auto-wash might seem pricey at £8.95 for 300ml, but you only need to use 5ml of the stuff in an entire bucket. I’m not kidding. Just five mil and you get a whole bucket of foamy paint cleaning goodness which is environmentally friendly and apparently anti-corrosive. If you’re wondering about the syringe, I got it from Halfords in a pack of three, part of a new range of hobbiest materials - just the job.
Rinsed off the Auto-wash left a lovely streak-free finish, ready for the Auto-clay. The remarkable thing about BH clay, compared to others on the market, is that you not only get a substantial 200g wodge of it for your £9.95, the only lubrication it requires is water. It’s also good and heavy, and made light work (relatively speaking) of removing probably two decades worth of surface contamination.
After the claying the entire car, I had a go at hand polishing out some of the scratches and swirl marks with a pair of products from a German company called Car-Lack. I didn’t really get on with these very well, and didn’t find them very effective. However, they probably weren’t helped by the coloured wax that appears to have been applied prior to my purchase of the MX-5 to hide various stonechips and scratches - it’s this rather than the Mazda’s paint I believe has come off on the applicators (and the clay) in the pictures.
So, after a round of clay and a couple of rounds of polish it turns out my car has a few more areas of stone damaged paint than I had previously realised. This doesn’t bother me too much, since it’s 20 years old and I feel it deserves some honourable patina. But at the same time it made me even more glad of the Bilt-Hamber Auto-balm. Auto-balm goes on as a last touch, in place of traditional wax. It seals the paint and again has anti-corrosive properties that the company claims makes it ideal for applying over stonechips, etc. It looks like butterscotch Angel Delight - but there’s not much danger of you wanting to eat it thanks to the heavy petro-chemical smell. It is used in absolutely tiny amounts, and applied with a wet pad (supplied) to very small areas at a time.
You need to buff it almost immediately, otherwise it becomes very tricky to work with. I used some Rubbish Boy’s Marvel scratchless buffing towels, which worked really well. The act of buffing is what causes the Auto-balm to form a protective barrier over your paint, and in the process delivers an incredibly gloss slick finish. Simply put, this stuff is amazing. Supposedly it will even mask minor swirl marks, depending on the manner in which it’s applied; my Mazda’s paint seems to be a little far gone for this to have a massive impact (or I need to be less of a fraidy cat and put more effort into the polishing). But the layers of Auto-balm will build up over time, so maybe the masking will improve. I went over the MX-5 twice, and it hardly looked like I’d used any of the butterscotch, sorry Auto-balm, in the jar. Sure, it’s a small car, but at £14.95 this appears to be excellent value for money.
I am pretty damn pleased with the finished result. Even if I can’t really see it for the rain at the moment. My next Mazda tasks are to get the rear tyres replaced and the alignment done properly. For various reasons this isn’t quite going to be as simple as it sounds - but more on that later. --- Links: Mazda MX-5: Cambelt complications, immobiliser upgrade Ford SportKa: Ka-ka-ka-claying Rubbish Boy’s Carnauba Wax Shop --- Technorati Tags: Mazda MX-5, cleaning, wax, polish, clay, Bilt-Hamber, Rubbish Boy's, stonechips, Long Termers, Inside Track --- Share It:
20 novembre I crashed my friend's Lotus Dan Trent writes: Fresh from nearly flipping my Clio I feel this chap's pain. Out having a go in a mate's Lotus Elise he was unfortunate enough to spin it and do £3,500's worth of damage. Ouch. He's now, as he puts it, "hustling for cash to pay off a power-slide that went badly wrong" by paying off the repair as a 'micro job man', selling his time for £35 a pop for any number of odd jobs and figuring that if he manages to 'sell' 100 micro jobs he'll be able to pay the Lotus's repair bill. Genius! Services offered include painting, furniture assembly, website construction and maintenance and, apparently, "vehicle handling testing"! If you want to show your support or book him for a micro job you can contact him via his website, which also includes a very amusing reconstruction of the notorious spin. Dan --- Links: I crashed my friend's Lotus Clios in a spin at Oulton --- Share It
Clios in a spin at Oulton Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk Dan Trent writes: You'll have seen me alluding to a 'motivating factor' for swapping my wheels over at Oulton on Tuesday. So what was that then? Well, mainly the fact that they were full of gravel after the following incident...  Pic by Riad Ariane ...which could well have ended up very differently. As it stands the fact I only have a set of pebble-dashed alloys (and a small stain on the driver's seat) to show for it is a blessing because I could well have ended up on my roof. Still, it made for a spectacular pic and my thanks to Riad Ariane for sending me the amazing photo above.  Pic by Riad Ariane Yes Dan, you idiot, that's well and truly beached... Anyway, I take some comfort from the fact that that there were several 172 Cups like mine there and I think at some point or other during the day I think each of us ended up in the same gravel trap! The marshals certainly got used to the sight of blue Clio 172s spinning off there. This wasn't the only action either, the following shots showing one owner doing a good impression of using his Clio Williams as a plough as he surfs across Oulton's turf... That won't go down well with circuit owner Jonathan Palmer!    Pics by www.zzzone.co.uk If you need any further evidence of quite how slippery it was the following video from a chap in a very rapid (it would be, seeing as it weighs just over 800kg and has a 2.0-litre engine from a 172 in it!) Mk1 Clio, or 'Valver' as they're known in Renault circles. Look out for a cameo appearance from yours truly at 3:16 - that's me in the white Megane 250, having wisely parked the 172 Cup and taken something with ABS and ESP for the rain-soaked afternoon session... (Parental advisory: contains language appropriate to spinning your treasured project car off a race track and nearly wiping out into the armco!) Thanks to fOxy for the video. And entertainment! Suffice to say, the ESP systems in modern Renaultsports are about the best in the business and very welcome when it's as slippery as that! Dan --- Links: Lose an inch, gain a mile Oulton park track photography by zzzone Clio Mk1 172 'hybrid' project --- Share It
New Porsche racer walks 'most ridiculous spoiler' contest Dan Trent writes: If racing were a simple matter of 'my wing's bigger than yours' the new Porsche GT3 R would be off to a head start from the word go. And if you see a lot of crumpled looking shirts among the staff at Porsche's competition department you've got the reason why in front of you - someone seems to have bolted the ironing board to the back of a ruded up 911 racecar and left it at that.  The latest in a (very) long line of badass 911 race variants, this GT3 R is an uprated version of the GT3 Cup one-make race series car, itself a development of the GT3 RS which isn't too far removed from the standard GT3 which- oh, you get the idea.  Beneath that giant rear wing the engine has been boosted from 3.8 litres to a round 4.0 litres, power climbing from the Cup's 450hp to 480hp as a result. The six-speed sequential racing gearbox gets auto throttle blipping, much like the 370Z's Synchro Rev Control feature, to aid driveability and make the GT3 R suitable for what Porsche calls the 'ambitious amateur racing driver'. The ambitious amateur racing driver with €279,000 (plus VAT), it should be added. Suitable for running in the popular GT3 category, the rush of ambitious amateur racing drivers upgrading to the new 911 GT3 R from the previous GT3 Cup S will no doubt help swell Porsche's coffers, these off the peg racers being a very profitable part of the firm's business. Nice to know it's not just Cayennes and Panameras keeping Porsche afloat though. Dan --- Links: New GT3 RS revealed Nissan 370Z first drive --- Share It
19 novembre BMW 5 Series E60 – we salute youTom Evans writes: It is a mark of a great car that even in the last throes of its lifespan, it still looks and drives as if it were newly launched. And so we must say goodbye to the BMW 5 Series, 2003 to 2010, AKA E60/61 for the anoraks among us. On November 23, the next 5 Series will be unleashed on the world, and the current one will move into history. Design-wise I think the E60 is easily the most successful of the Chris Bangle era BMWs, with fluid, exciting lines that evoke speed and performance even standing still; the flame surface, flambéed to perfection. The ‘fan’ rear lights – a subtle design feature – have grown on me over the years, as has the car in its entirety. And today, it still looks as fresh as it did when it was first unveiled over six years ago. Better than the Jaguar XF, miles better than the yawn-inducing Audi A6, and at least as sharp as the new Mercedes E-Class.
Even mores to the point, it is still an utterly brilliant drive. There can’t be many cars heading out of production that are still best in class on the steering and handling front (the only other one I can think of is the current Ford Focus), let alone in the hyper-competitive executive arena – but the 5 Series for me still reigns supreme. We had a 530d in last year for a twin-test against the XF 2.7 diesel. A slightly unfair test you might argue given the puny 207hp of the Jag compared to the 231 of the BMW. But even granting that, Ian and I were amazed (neither of us had driven a 5 in a while) at how much better the BMW was at good old fashioned driving; sharp handling, superbly balanced steering, solidity – just plain class. The E60 M5 (below), with that gloriously mad screaming V10 engine would surely have been the greatest sports-saloon ever were it not for that ghastly SMG gearbox; I wish we Brits had got the manual one, like those lucky Americans. But perhaps it is paradoxically correct that the über-5 Series was a flawed masterpiece, lest it overshadow its more humdrum, yet still brilliant, brethren.
The best car in the world? When the current car’s predecessor (the E39 of 1995 to 2003) came along I recall numerous commentators naming the mid-range (petrol) 528i as the world’s best all-round car. Today, its spiritual successor, the 530d, could make a good claim for that title. Good looks, good boot, room for five, relatively low depreciation (six year-old ones will still set you back over £8,000, complete with hefty mileage), plenty of poke and 44mpg combined - can one reasonably ask for much more? Perhaps not, but I’m sure the BMW folk will be trying to make us do so from next Monday. They have one serious act to follow. Lose an inch, gain a mile Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk Dan Trent writes: The best upgrade you can have for your car? Smaller wheels. Now I know in fashion terms this is about as finger on the pulse as suggesting rolling up the sleeves of your suit jacket and unbuttoning your shirt to your waistband will make you look cool. And in an age where even hot-hatches are shipping with 19-inch wheels I realise I'm going against the grain somewhat. But hear me out.  This all comes after swapping my regular 16-inch road wheels over for my super lightweight 15-inch OZ Ultraleggeras over the lunchbreak at the Oulton Park trackday on Tuesday. There was a motivating factor in this, which I'll tell you about later... Anyway, the difference was astounding and the Clio felt like a different car. Instantly it felt perkier, more agile and the suspension was working way better than before. Stands to reason - if you're going to trim weight out of a car the best place to do it is in the wheels and suspension components, this unsprung weight (as opposed to the rest of the car) having a much bigger impact on the way the car rides and drives than anything this side of centre of gravity and weight distribution.  Thing is, even on standard 16-inch wheels the Clio is running smaller wheels than most modern hot hatches. At a smidge under 5kg the 15-inch Ultraleggeras are a very light wheel indeed (for comparison a 16-inch version is nearly 1.5kg heavier and an 18-inch nearly 3kg more) but the improvement was so dramatic I decided to leave them on for the drive home. And you know what? It was better on the road too, riding with something approaching comfort (relatively speaking) over the crumbling roads around my way. Amazing!  Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk It's the same on the new Megane 250. The press cars we drove on the launch all had the Halfords-spec 19-inch wheels on but the LHD car Renault scored for Oulton was on 18s and drove just as well on the track and looked better into the bargain. I was chatting with a chap looking to place an order and tried to tell him the 18s were the better bet but he wasn't having it. Indeed, it's a pity the Twingo Cup CJ took along is going back today - I'd be out there with the jack slinging my OZs on to see what they'd be like in place of the monster (and kerb hungry) 17s on it at the moment!  Pic by www.zzzone.co.uk The campaign for smaller wheels starts here! Dan --- Links: Oulton Park track photography by www.zzzone.co.uk Renaultsport Megane 250 first drive Megane 250 - the uncut version OZ Ultraleggera stats and info --- Share It
17 novembre To Maranello and FioranoPeter Burgess writes: It doesn’t get much better than a Ferrari launch at Maranello. But this is trip is potentially the best yet, for I am here to drive the fabulous-looking Ferrari 458 Italia. This is a launch we have been working on for months - in fact, as soon as we first got whiff of this awesome Ferrari.
We don’t get to drive the car until tomorrow, but on trips like this it’s important to get the groundwork done as soon as possible. I teamed up with the Indy’s John Simister weeks ago because we’re both comfortable driving supercars together, and are well versed in the perils of spending a day alongside someone who scares the hell out of you or alternatively fails to really understand the fundamentals of driving a fast car quickly.
We quickly made a pitch for our session at Ferrari’s Fiorano racetrack. John and I have booked in at 3pm tomorrow, which gives us six glorious hours in the car beforehand followed by circuit work before the light disappears.
Undoubtedly there will be a typical Italian lunch scheduled along the way but we’ll skip if for more car time. What we didn’t skip this evening was an hour and three quarter technical briefing - which, even with my background in engineering, was rather exhaustive. Still, it’s a great chance to acquire the detail and to get under the skin of these passionate Ferrari guys.
I now know more than I’ll ever need to about scavenging pumps, crankcase windage and variable geometry oil pumps.
By 9pm we are in the pit garage at the Fiorano track for pasta, steak and tiramisu, washed down with Italian red wine. Nothing, though, can suppress this ever-building sense of anticipation about tomorrow. It should be sensational. --- Share It
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